Whitman for Governor
Governor Whitman's situation was much different from Senator Dole's. She was an incumbent seeking reelection in a state-wide race. This race gave us an opportunity to take what was learned on a national level and bring it down to the state level. It also was a unique opportunity to try new techniques, such as a bilingual site and contrast campaigning. Again, the goal was to fully integrate the Internet into the campaign and offer the online voter the full breadth of the campaign.
Overview
The main goal of this site was to convey to voters what Governor Whitman had accomplished in her four years in office and convince them to reelect her. We focused on her record, developing a full section describing what she had accomplished in her term - a kind of "Top Ten" greatest hits.
Additionally, we put in a section called Real Changes for Real People, letting voters describe the ways that the Whitman Administration had positively changed their lives. This kind of interaction made voters feel more connected to the campaign and gave us the ability to tell our message in a creative, attention grabbing way.
We also used the site as an opportunity to better tell the Christie Whitman story in multiple ways: pictures, audio, video, and text. (Click here for the About Christie Main Page) This proved to be one of the most popular sections of the site throughout the campaign. Governor Whitman had run for state-wide office twice before and she had been Governor for four years. What was it that people were looking for in an About Christie section? The difference is the Web provides a unique opportunity to humanize political candidates. Unless the campaign runs an expensive biographical ad, it is difficult for voters to "get to know" the candidate. Online you can do so much better than a 30 second television ad.
All of our candidate biography sections are designed as if you were sitting next to the candidate, going through their personal photo album, listening to them tell their story. (Click here to view a page of her biography) In the age of soundbite politics, voters are seeking out a more personal touch online. You can still do contrast campaigning (see The Real McGreevey below), but unlike a 30 second spot, you have an unlimited canvas and multiple media to tell your story.
The Real McGreevey
This section was an issue by issue analysis of Governor Whitman's Democratic opponent, Jim McGreevey. We broke out his record issue by issue, showing how his votes conflicted with each other and how he would take New Jersey back in the direction of the Florio Administration. This was the first time comparison campaigning had been done online in a state-wide race; it proved to be very popular with voters and effective with the press.
Bus Tour Coverage
Governor Whitman ended her campaign with an 11 day, 97 stop, "Right Road to a Brighter Future" bus tour of New Jersey. (Click here for Bus Tour coverage main menu) Most state-wide campaigns employ this kind of earned media strategy at some point in their campaigns; our goal was to take the tour and make it even more valuable. Rather than just seeing the candidate the one time they visit your area, we enabled voters to follow along for the entire trip. The concept was to act as our own news service. Each night, you could visit the Christie '97 Web site and see where the campaign had been, view pictures from each event, and even hear from other voters as to why they supported Governor Whitman. (Click here to see a daily example of our coverage)
Spanish Version of Site
One of the more unique and groundbreaking features of the site was its bilingual version. This was the first time that a state-wide candidate had offered Spanish speaking voters equal information online and it generated very positive earned media. (Click here for Spanish section main menu) This site was not simply a page or two of content in Spanish; most pages of the site were translated into Spanish. Even our Campaign Interactive section, with options like downloadable computer wallpaper were available in Spanish. (Click here for the Spanish Campaign Interactive section)
Results
This site brought to state-wide campaigning the lessons learned on a national level. We discovered that what worked for us nationally would work locally. It also worked to help the candidate win votes. Governor Whitman was reelected by a margin of only 20,000 votes. While hits are not a good measure of actual voters, we saw enormous traffic over the last weeks of the campaign, roughly 200,000 hits in the last five days. We can also see what voters were looking at: our Bus Tour coverage, the Whitman Record, About Christie, and The Real McGreevey. These are not the kinds of things you would expect to find hard-core supporters looking at. These were undecided voters, who in the last days of the campaign went online and, in part, decided how they were going to vote based on what they saw there. The site was named the Best Political Web site of the 1997 election by Politics Online.
(Robert K. Arena, Jr. - Consultant - 1997)
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